This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Finding God First

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Many years ago, one of the sisters I barely
spoke to contacted me and asked me out for tea. She had just converted to Islam but
encountered some severe issues and the husband to be left. She said that she thought I was easy to talk
to. Several weeks later, she informed me
that she had decided to leave Islam and asked me how to go about it. And I helped her. And then she asked if we could still be
friends if she was not Muslim, and I said I had no problem with that.

And then months later, she contacted me and
said she believed in God but could not accept the prophet. It was the usual issues: the marriage to ‘Aishah
(r.a.), the polygamy issue, the hijab and so forth. And I said believing in God is good enough. And then I never heard from her for a year or
so. And then she contacted me and asked
me for a good book on sirah. And I recommended Shaykh Martin Ling’s (q.s.), ‘Life of Muhammad’.

And this pattern continued regarding the odd
questions here and there. And then one
day, she said she wanted to retake the shahadah.
So I arranged for it. And then she wanted to attend a class. And I made the arrangements also. And then one day, just as I had not heard from
her in a very long time, we happened to meet somewhere and she asked me why I
never told her what to do, what to wear, tell her to pray and fast or anything.
And my reason is simple: she had not
found her God, what use is there to think about the forms of the religion? There is no use in learning so much texts and
reading so many books and attending so many lectures if one is unable to
recognise the human soul. Muslims do not
do that. They like to throw the book at
people.